Jordan Spieth is atop the Masters leaderboard for a seventh consecutive round, which is a record. But this Masters is a far more complicated matter than last year’s runaway.

Spieth was up by four strokes with two holes left. He then bogeyed 17 and double bogeyed 18 after drives that found the right trees. That pulled him down to a 73 and 3-under-par for the tournament, and he leads rookie Smylie Kaufman by one shot with one round left.

Spieth also double bogeyed the 11th hole when he was ahead by three strokes. He had only one double bogey in his first two years at the Masters, but has three this week, in riotous winds and on hardrock greens.

The winds are supposed to ease, but Spieth admitted he needed to regroup.

“It’s not going to be fun tonight for a little while,” he said. “I can’t rely on the putter the way I did today. I have to strike the ball better and put myself in better positions.

Spieth hit only 10 greens in regulation and eight fairways. He saved par with such audacious putting that Rory McIlroy, his playing partner, turned at one point and said, “How in hell is he 2-under-par?”

Spieth hit a poor approach to 11 that led to a 6, but bounced back with a downhill birdie putt on 12. Birdies on 14 and 15 left the gallery unprepared for the final hiccup.

On 17 he hit a driver against his better instincts, after he and caddie Michael Greller had settled on 3-wood. The winds caused everyone to second-guess, but Spieth no longer looks like a sure thing.

“I played better than I scored,” Spieth said, “but it’s tough to realize that all of a sudden it’s anyone’s game. It’s tough to swallow that. But if you’d told me that I’d have the 54-hole lead, I’d obviously be very pleased.”

Kaufman, 24, fashioned a one-bogey 69 that was the day’s best round. He won the PGA Tour event at Las Vegas last fall. Kaufman is from Birmingham and competed against Spieth as a junior.

“He was about 1,000-0 against me, always beating me,” Kaufman said.

But Kaufman grew up playing fast, undulating greens on his home course and has used that knowledge here.

He came here as a youth and tried to take pictures with a disposable camera.

“It didn’t zoom at all,” he said, “so the photos are terrible. I also had a chance to come as a seventh grader, but I was playing too much high school golf and missing too much school. The scholar that I am wanted to stay in school. That’s me being sarcastic as a scholar. I didn’t come, and I’m catching crap for it now.”

Bernhard Langer, 58, had a wondrous 2-under-par 70 and shares third with Hideki Matsuyama, who can become Japan’s first major. They are two strokes behind.

“Right now the women’s tour is very popular at home,” Matsuyama said. “Hopefully a major win would give more popularity to men’s golf, and hopefully we can do that.”

Jason Day showed signs of contention with a 71 that left him even par, with Dustin Johnson and England’s Danny Willett. McIlroy, who was in second place when the day began, faded with a 77 that included no birdies.

Spieth was most disappointed in the way he played the 18th once he escaped the woods. Instead of playing a “stock wedge shot,” he tried a punch shot into the green that left him 49 feet below the hole and led to a 3-putt.

“That is just an unbelievably defensive play, especially the way I feel over my wedges right now,” he said.

So this is not the time, or the year, to run out the clock.

Three facts:

1. Jordan Spieth can be the first back-to-back Masters winner since Tiger Woods in 2000 and 2001.

2. Amateur Bryson DeChambeau suffered a 77 that featured a double-bogey 7 on the 15th and is at 5-over-par.

3. Only three of the top 10 players going into Sunday have won a major championship (Spieth, Jason Day, Bernhard Langer).